Living

Time is a wastin', and I'm getting old. Ok, maybe not really. But I came across a blog post on a site that I follow via Facebook and it was really intriguing to me. It's entitled "25 Things You Should Do Before You Turn 25."

Naturally, I clicked on it. It has some pretty cool, practical, and fun suggestions. There are a few that I can check off this list. But since I only have 16 months until I turn 25, I should probably get going on some of these. Namely numbers 1, 3, 7, 23, and 25. Regarding #1: if anyone is headed abroad before January 2014, can I tag along? Please?? I promise to pay my own way :)
(I'm only slightly kidding around here...)
25 Things You Should Do Before You Turn 25


This past week I did a 3-night stint at the Mount. It felt so wonderful to be there, but I don't know if it will end up helping me or hurting me in the end.



This week's yoga pose:

Goddess Warrior/Reverse Warrior

Hold for 5 breaths in and out

Benefits:

Opening in the ribs

Strengthens thighs

A Collage of Sorts

More baking adventures this past week. Banana muffins and apple turnovers. Both taste absolutely yummy. Take a look!

I'll be taking a break from baking for a little while. Too many sweet temptations in the house. Lucky for me I work in a building where there are plenty of mouths to feed :D



I was reminded this afternoon of my all-too-easily fading spirituality since leaving the mount 8 weeks ago. Being too overwhelmed with the move the first month was easy to understand and forgivable. Slacking the past 4 weeks is not an excuse nor is it something I'm proud of. I realize I will never be a morning person. If this past year's 5:45am daily alarm could not change that, nothing will, so meditating to start off my day might not ever happen. I will be trying something new starting tonight.

Along the same lines, I have been reading a book entitled "Fearing the Stigmata." Now, before your mind starts wandering in a billion different places trying to figure out what is meant by that title, this is a book written for young, 20-something to early 30's Catholics. The subtitle: "Humorously Holy Stories of a Young Catholic's Search for a Culturally Relevant Faith." It consists of a bunch of short stories and is an extremely easy read. It is written by a 28-year-old who was brought up in a pretty traditional Catholic family, so some of what the author writes about is a bit foreign to me. But most of it I can relate to in some way, like his chapter about publicly accepting your faith. How do you become comfortable with it when everyone around you that is your age seems to be slipping away? "A public faith life may bruise your head. It can embarrass you, challenge you, and create large amounts of anxiety or fear--on buses, in restaurants, along roads...This is even more difficult if you are twenty-seven and some of your friends look at you the way you looked at someone of a different faith. Yet, along with its bumps and bruises, toads and dirty looks, the key ingredients to having a public faith life still include generous heapings of joy and grace, love, wonder, and strength--the strength to sometimes do things you never thought you could do."
Check it out: "Fearing the Stigmata"



And now for this week's yoga pose:

 

High Lunge/Crescent Pose

Hold for 5 breaths in and out, then switch legs

Benefits:

Improved balance

If you're really looking for a challenge, try the tripod pose...

Just kidding! I mean, you can try if you'd like. I learned how to do this in gymnastics class when I was like...8.

On a New Kick

Most people who know me know I LOVE to bake. Brownies, cake, cupcakes...soon I will be trying my hand at apple turnovers. And yes, I know I just blogged about losing weight last week. I actually enjoy baking more for the creations I come up with for other people than for myself.

This time I decided to try to make rainbow cupcakes. Just a box of white cake mix and food coloring,

                                                         and VIOLA!

Rainbow cupcakes! 

They are sooo flippin' good! I also made vanilla buttercream frosting from scratch and dyed it purple, and tried to be all fancy with a pastry bag and tips. I think I need to perfect both the frosting and the decorating, however. But they still taste good. Here's to hoping the person they were made for thinks the same...

I also started to take some steps towards a healthier lifestyle within the last week. Carrie and I began taking some decently long walks last weekend. 6 miles at the penninsula last Sunday and yesterday, with some shorter 3 mile walks around our neighborhood during the week. I also bought a beginner yoga DVD and started that tonight. I'd love to take classes at a studio but, alas, I am still broke so a one time $12 fee for an at home session will have to do for now. I hope I keep up with it because I can feel the effects after only one time through, and I love how I feel after stretching. I'll post one yoga pose each week that you can try yourself if you'd like. Hopefully my form will improve with time!

Downward Facing Dog

Hold for 5 breaths in and out
Benefits:
Stronger hands, wrists, low-back, hamstrings, calves and Achilles tendon
Decrease in back pain
Decrease in tension and headaches
Deepened respiration
Decreased anxiety
Increased full-body circulation

Getting in Shape

How do I get rid of the 10 pounds I gained living at the Mount? That's a good question.

My problem? I hate working out. I don't run, I don't particularly enjoy riding my bike (which is still in the garage at the Mount anyway), I love rollerblading but it's difficult to find a smooth surface, and I strongly dislike the gym. I pretty much just complain and wish I was in shape instead of doing something about it. Gets me far, this I know...

I decided today I need to get motivated to do little things that will help and eventually add up to be big things. I took advantage of the beautiful weather and walked about 6 miles at the peninsula this afternoon. Loved it. The ice cream I stopped to get after the fact probably negated every bit of good the walk did, though. And that's where I fall short. Somehow I need to figure out how to get the physical part and the food to work together. I'm thinking of taking up yoga soon, too.

Sisters, I loved celebrating all of your birthdays and feast days this past year with cake, brownies, ice cream and other sweets. My midsection, not so much. My doctor wasn't exactly thrilled either.

Patient Trust

Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are quite naturally impatient in everything
     to reach the end without delay.
We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way to something
     unknown, something new.
And yet it is the law of all progress
     that it is made by passing through
     some stages of instability—
     and that it may take a very long time.
And so I think it is with you;
     your ideas mature gradually—let them grow,
     let them shape themselves, without undue haste.
Don’t try to force them on,
     as though you could be today what time
     (that is to say, grace and circumstances
     acting on your own good will)
     will make of you tomorrow.
Only God could say what this new spirit
     gradually forming within you will be.
Give Our Lord the benefit of believing
     that his hand is leading you,
and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself
     in suspense and incomplete.

—Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ



I am patient with my kiddos, yet very impatient with life.
Funny how that works.

Post-Community Blues

The greatest adjustment that I've had to deal with the past 5 weeks is going from living with 60+ women to living with just one other person. I never really minded being alone all that much until I moved into the Mount last year and realized how much living in community really worked for me.

There's just something wonderful about it. You have the ability to experience peace, quiet, tranquility and balance, go for a walk, sit outside in the gardens, watch the deer and other wildlife in your own backyard, but you're still surrounded by so many women who always have your back, support you, and love you. It wasn't without its struggles, of course, but the rewards were well worth it for me. And no matter how hard I try, that feeling can never be replicated anywhere else.

There have been times since I've moved where I've honestly thought, "I hate this house. I hate it on my own." I'm not having fun, I'm not comfortable. I can enjoy moments here and there, but that doesn't change how I'm feeling inside.

I've been alone at the apartment this holiday weekend. I've done a lot of thinking, praying, crying. I'm trying to make sense of the emotions I've been feeling. It doesn't help that I don't have much of a social life yet. I'm rebuilding my life in a new city, despite the fact that I've lived here for a year already. It's one of those situations where I wish I could just snap my fingers and friends appear, a guy, a life outside of work. At 23, I feel so out of the loop. I hate it.

Bottom line, I don't know what any of these feelings mean. Probably that I'm human and difficult adjustments are normal.

But it still sucks.